Looking to Upgrade Your PII-450? Look Here!
Written: May 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Simply Awesome Power. Levels the Processor Playing Field.
Cons: A Little Expensive.
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| skadar's Full Review: Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator |
It's difficult for me to admit that my blazing computer system is nearing the end of its relative operational life span. I just need to face it, my Pentium II-450 is now considered "low end". The thing is still wicked fast, but it barely compares to what's out there now.
I've used a lot of the later processors, and I feel that PC processors have reached somewhat of a plateau, with the PII-450 marking the very edge and beginning of that plateau. Anything lower than that simply falls off the edge. I work with (and play games on) a PIII-550 every single day, and I can't tell the difference from my PII-450 at home. The faster the processor, the less the noticable difference in speed, and the more money you pay.
If you don't feel like dropping a bundle on the latest, most expensive processor, you might consider upgrading your graphics card to a GeForce Pro. This card has the ability to level the playing field. It virtually takes your CPU out of the processing picture when it comes to graphics.
I bought one because I wanted to extend the gaming life of my PII-450, and also because I can carry it with me over to a new computer if I should ever choose to upgrade in the near future. I was stepping up from a TNT1, which could just barely keep up with the latest games I was throwing at it.
I researched all of the GeForce Pro cards by reading all of the reviews I could get my hands on. After filtering all of that information for a day or two, I had my answer: the Elsa Erazor X2. Fine. I went to www.shopper.com in order to find the lowest price. Bingo. And then I started to notice the "In Stock" status of all the different stores. Nobody had the Elsa in stock! No one.
Because of this, I defaulted to my next choice, the Creative Labs Annihilator Pro. This card has the added benefit of being easy to find. It's a very popular card from a well respected company... so many online stores have them in stock. I decided to purchase mine from Buy.com.
The Annihilator Pro utilizes DDR (dual data rate) memory which is twice as fast as the memory on the basic Annihilator. It makes a difference and it's about $40 more. I received my card, and excitedly performed the incredibly easy installation. In preparation for using this powerful card, I had ordered a slot cooling fan from 3dcool.com that would easily bleed away any excess heat generated by this card. The fan is damn cool and it installs into a slot directly below the card. Heat is absolutely not a problem.
For now, I decided to just stick with the standard drivers offered by Creative Labs. Maybe in the future I will switch to the latest nVidia reference drivers. But I wanted to avoid problems from the very beginning.
Let me tell you that this card lives up to expectations! It really does remove your processor from the picture. I can crank all of my games up to full graphic detail at 32-bit color depth and run them silky smooth at 1024x768 and higher! Unreal Tournament looks absolutely amazing. As does Counter Strike, Urban Operations, and everything else that I throw at it.
I'm not really one for tweaking all of the advanced options of my graphics card, but I can tell you that the Creative drivers offer more options than I know what to do with. They even offer a built-in method of overclocking the card, which I haven't tried yet.
The card ships with a few color-calibration programs that I was wary about installing. For some strange reason, I installed them anyway. It turns out that they really helped me get the most from my monitor. The colors are richer and the blacks are much deeper and not washed out like they used to be. The card also ships with a few demo programs that really show off the card's capabilities. One such title is the "Blah Blah Zoological Gardens" (can't remember the exact name) which puts you into an incredibly detailed world to walk around in. The graphics in this demo will blow you away (probably the most incredible character models and animations I have ever seen on a PC), and they are seemlessly smooth on even my low end computer.
Even with the new GeForce GTS coming out, the Annihilator Pro is a kick ass card. I'm really satisfied with it, and I'm confident that it will still be a great card when I get that new top-of-the-line system sometime in the future. Highly Recommended.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
skadar
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Location: Connecticut
Reviews written: 158
Trusted by: 168 members
About Me:
As a charter Epinions member, Skadar has contributed many trusted and highly rated reviews.
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